THERE are big changes planned to the traffic layout as part of improvement works in The Goth area of Rosyth.

Fife Council have put £100,000 in the pot to help fund the project, which will see Aberlour Street stopped up and the traffic lights moved on Queensferry Road.

They're still waiting on more funding but wanted to have the traffic orders in place to ensure work can begin as soon as the money is in place.

Technical engineer in traffic management, Keith Johnston, said: "The main objective is to simplify the junction of Park Road, Queensferry Road and Aberlour Street and make them much safer and easier to navigate for pedestrians.

"It will also improve the look and feel of that whole area.

"It's proposed to stop up Aberlour Street and its junction with Queensferry Road and realign Aberlour Street through the car park to exit onto Park Road.

"To do so involves the removal of the old toilet block and we also need to redesign the car parks.

"By doing so actually results in an increase in parking capacity by three spaces; that's a real positive there's no loss of parking to accommodate this scheme.

"It would also help us formalise the taxi rank which will be retained and there would be no significant change to the on-street parking restrictions that are already there."

He continued: "To improve the pedestrian and cycle movements in the area, it's proposed to relocate the existing crossing on Queensferry Road slightly further north and to make it a raised crossing.

"We would also introduce raised tables on Aberlour Street and Park Road and link up with the cycle route that's on the east side of Queensferry Road, coming down from the railway station.

"To link that up, it's proposed to upgrade the existing pedestrian island on Park Road, on the east side of Queensferry Road, to a raised parallel crossing.

"This operates and looks very similar to a zebra crossing but it also has cycle provision that runs alongside the white and black stripes."

Improvements around The Goth pub were included in plans for the regeneration of Rosyth town centre in 2010.

A first phase saw work completed in 2014 in the Parkgate and Queensferry Road areas and, in November 2018, councillors agreed to allocate £100,000 of capital money for the second phase.

There will be planters and seating, and the recycling bins will be moved to a more "discreet location", but progress has been slow.

Councillors were told the "70 per cent construction match-funding" they're hoping will come from Sustrans has still to be confirmed.

Mr Johnston said that having approved traffic orders in place "will certainly strengthen the request for funding".

Cllr Brian Goodall asked if they would be wasting money by approving orders now only to find out later that they didn't get Sustrans funding.

The officer replied: "It would cost around £2,000 to proceed with the traffic order process, it's a fairly small amount in terms of the overall project.

"It's not something so significant that it's going to make or break it."

It was also suggested the money could be claimed back from Sustrans if the bid for funding was unsuccessful.